


Distance

by SpadesDame



Series: Flare: to burn; to ignite [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Domestic, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Seto's self-imposed angst, flareshipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 05:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9534149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpadesDame/pseuds/SpadesDame
Summary: A late-night video-call, an over-worked CEO.[Or, Yuugi has gone away to university, and Atem divides his time between his two lovers. Only Seto doesn't understand why he keeps coming back.] {part one of two}





	

**Author's Note:**

> I lied.

“And aibou, get this…” Atem went on, amidst fits of laughter to extoll the latest of Jounouchi’s expeditions. Yuugi was laughing uncontrollably at this point, bottom lip fruitlessly sucked between his teeth to keep the noise down and pillow clutched to his chest as tears ran from the corners of his eyes. Atem let himself indulge in the image.

“S-s-stop-p. Yami, you’re killing me!” Yuugi wiped at his eyes, breathing heavily in and out in an attempt to normalize his breathing. Atem watched him through the small screen, the side of his face softly illuminated by a bedside lamp, the bottom of a promotional poster for Duel Monsters they had done together peeking into the frame behind his colorful head. “…aaaand I lost you.”

Atem shook his head to come back to reality and gave Yuugi a soft smile. “I was just thinking how beautiful you are, aibou.”

Yuugi clicked his tongue, but not derisively. “You were just here the day before.” Then Yuugi looked straight at him and said, “I miss you too. But this is the better of our options. We talked about this.” Atem nodded but Yuugi wasn’t finished. “Plus, if anything were to happen, Ryou couldn’t keep away and then they’d have to deal with Bakura, which… I wouldn’t wish on anyone, really. But hey.” Yuugi smiled, eyes twinkling and shrugged.

Atem snorted at the thought of the thief. He was lurking around the university, terrorizing Ryou’s room-mates one by one. Yuugi and Ryou had already put in multiple requests to room in order to mildly pacify the errant ex-spirit, but to no avail. There was a general consensus that the dean would see the wrong in her ways sooner or later, and more than a little hope that it would be sooner, for the sake of everyone involved.

“Yeah, like that’s any consolation.” Truer to word, though, it was, a little. Even in their worst days, Bakura had protected Ryou from Atem’s own fire. And despite the thief’s objections, these days Ryou had more power over him than Bakura would probably have liked. Atem was okay with that –he could understand that.

“Hi Atem!!!” A brunet head poked inside the frame. Atem laughed and waved with his free hand at Yuugi’s whirlwind of a room-mate.

“Hello Juudai.”

“Gotta dash. Bye guys!”

“…Intermission.” Yuugi chuckled and Atem joined him.

“Where is he going so energetic this late?” Atem asked, curious.

“A party? Maybe Yuusei’s? I… kinda missed half of it earlier,” Yuugi confessed guiltily.

But Atem nodded. He had met Juudai on one of his visits. A good kid, a great duelist. Though, “he is hard to keep track of.”

At this moment, the bedroom door swung open, then closed again. With movements precise and mechanical, Seto discarded his briefcase on the floor, his suit jacket on a chair, then fiddled with his tie on his way to the bed. At the foot, he carelessly slid it off and dropped, face first on the bed –and on him.

Half-anticipating the move, Atem parted his legs to make a cradle but didn’t manage to hold in the surprised ‘oof!’ as the wind got knocked out of him. Seto’s energy seemed to extend only to crawling more firmly into his body to effectively smother his face on Atem’s stomach. One of his arms wrapped around the underside of Atem’s pajama-clad thigh to clutch on the crevice where thigh met hip as his nose dug a path in Atem’s rib-cage.

“Seto?” There was a muffled reply spoken into the soft cotton of his t-shirt (stolen from Seto) which Atem doubted was even a word. With a sigh, he threaded his fingers through Seto’s chestnut locks, getting a soft murmur of approval. Atem smiled and turned the phone in his hand so the front camera caught as much of their predicament as it could. Yuugi, who had remained silent until then, softly cooed. Atem poked Seto in the head. “Seto, say hi to aibou?” he prompted. Seto only grunted by way of a verbal reply but he did turn his head sideways so that his nose was not pressed against Atem’s abs.

All in all, it was better than Atem expected, since it was obvious that Seto was on his way to crashing. Atem made a mental note to set his alarm early in order to call up the office and cancel Seto’s appointments.

“I see you have your hands full. Perhaps we should hang up?” Yuugi asked, voice low.

Atem scoffed. Seto held onto his leg tighter at the disturbance of his makeshift pillow. “If he’s crashed like this, not sure if it’ll make any difference.”

Yuugi smiled, but it had a melancholy edge. “Yeah. It probably won’t. Kiss him from me. And tell him I’m mad. He hasn’t been picking up my calls at all.”

Atem frowned. “No?” He brushed Seto’s bangs off his peaceful face. Seto’s eyebrow twitched.

Yuugi shrugged in the video. “I’m sure he’s very busy, if he has crashed like that. It’s okay.”

Atem hummed. He played with Seto’s hair absentmindedly as he thought. “Must be the new Kaiba Land rides opening. You’ve seen how he gets. I’ll talk to him.” And he would, but not for the reason he had told Yuugi. It had not gone amiss by him how every time he left to spend a weekend with Yuugi he returned to find Seto in varying states of overworked, vibrating with pent-up angst (that he had left) and a strange kind of disbelief (that he had come back).

Atem craned his neck forward to press his lips against the crown of Seto’s head. “Done,” he told Yuugi, who immediately grinned.

He was not sure how to tackle the issue, though. He would rather not end up in another inevitable screaming match that left them both feeling cheated.

“I’m sorry, aibou. Could you repeat that? The connection wavered for a second.”

Yuugi shook his head, but didn’t call him out on his deviation. “Yuusei, you remember Yuusei, right? He apparently has some pretty cool designs for a new way for dueling. In fact, Malik’s gonna love this, if it works out. It’s all very hush hush of course. Maybe he’ll show you too, next time you’re over. Kaiba Corporation would definitely not want to miss this.” Yuugi winked and Atem smiled.

He nodded. “Alright. Yuusei seems like a well put together person. I’m sure they could find a balance.” After all, Atem thought, with a glance at the man in his arms, Yuusei would be familiar waters. Business as usual. It was when feelings got involved that the field blurred. He pressed his lips on Seto’s head again, unprompted.

Yuugi chuckled. “Oh, yeah. Well, that’s just the kind of vibe he gives off, really. But you’re not that far off on that. If there’s one thing that won’t intimidate him is freakishly tall and arrogant men.” Yuugi winked again. “And he is probably more responsible than is good for him, so Seto shouldn’t have any problems either.”

Atem hummed. His legs had started to go numb, and Seto’s heavy belt buckle was somewhat digging into his thigh. He tried to shift but Seto only held on more tightly. “Hang on a second, aibou.”

He put the phone down next to him in order to free both his hands. Still no budge. Atem narrowed his eyes in suspicion

“Seto? You have to help me a little here.” There was a mumble, more exhalation than sound. “What was that?” Atem sighed. With one hand he shoved on Seto’s shoulder in an attempt to turn him. Nothing. “Come on, dragon. You can’t sleep in your clothes.” He heard giggles from beside him. Yuugi had the gall to laugh at him.

“Should have thought of that, yami.”

Atem grunted, only because, yes, he should have. And now he was stuck. “Seto, your belt is in my thigh.” Seto just held him tighter. Worse, they were lying on top of the covers and Seto only had on a thin dress-shirt and slacks.

He picked the phone back up. Holding it above his head so that Yuugi at least could enjoy the view, he said “I’ll have to call you back.”

Yuugi shook his head. “I should go to sleep, too. So should you, when you manage that. Love you.”

“I love you, aibou. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Hai.” Yuugi launched at the screen with an over-exaggerated kissy-face and Atem barely had the time to scrunch up his own lips in an imitation of one before the line disconnected. Battery 5%. Reaching to the bedside table, he put it on the charger and set the alarm for 6 am before setting it down.

Now, to go about moving a mountain…

**Author's Note:**

> Here i am. In a tiny window of time before i go to sleep, with this. More self indulgence than anything else, honestly. 
> 
> HEADCANNON TIME! YAY!
> 
> I imagine, in this instance, Seto would not begin to understand whyAtem keeps coming back to him. Every time Atem leaves, Seto tells himself that he's prepared for him not coming back. And he always does, so Seto gets worse and worse, works more and more, and tries not to deal. I am going to tackle this in the next installment, and not only with Atem, because Yuugi is also in this relationship and the two of them made this agreement on the base that, emotionally, Seto would be worse off with both of them gone. And they were right, and wrong. Right because he would have started to write their relationship off like a some silly far-fetched fantasy and wrong because he has made this situation into something far mroe complicated than it is. 
> 
> On a lighhter, note. I think Seto clings in his sleep, but he also leaves the bed first, so he has to be on one end for practicality's sake (usually. but he won't hesitate to climb all over them if he has to!!). Yuugi doesn't want to be smothered, so he gets the other. So, that would put atem in the middle, with big (smol) spoon Yuugi behind him and octopus Seto on his other side. When Seto is asleep, or on his way there, is when his softer side shows around the ones he trusts. He'll lean into Atem, or drop his head on Yuugi's and let them coddle him without much protest. He is also notorious to passing out around the house wherever he spots one of them first after consecutive all-nighters, be it the bed, the couch, or the game-room. 
> 
> 5d's and gx references because this has been brewing in my head and getting more and more dimensions and so help me. Think nothing of them, or anything you want. 
> 
> Come say hi at astralmaenad.tumblr.com ??? 
> 
> If you have the time, plz comment to get me through my exams whole. I have a week and a half left. <3


End file.
